You almost count me amongst the unemployed these days. I have a couple days a week where I am working remotely, and since no one calls me, nor emails me and my application is essentially dead, my work life consists of a few governance meetings a week and being available for emergencies. The former boss called me an "insurance policy".
Because of this change in my work flow, I'm not tied to a desk and am experiencing life in a new way. Yesterday, I 'worked from home' and while I waited for inbound contact, I took care of some minor personal things. I picked up a shirt from the dry cleaner, got a coffee at the local Starbucks, and went to Target to get some tubs to pack away the last of the Christmas things. (Christmas stuff grows each year. Have you ever noticed that?)
I have experienced unemployment before, and I've taken a week off and stayed put so I'm familiar with the idea that stores and traffic is MUCH different at 10 am on a Tuesday than they are at 6:30 pm. I don't quite remember the EXTREME shift in the demographics of the patrons at that hour. Yesterday I noticed that I was the only woman on the face of the earth (aka Issaquah) who was out and about but didn't have a kid in tow. There were wall to wall moms at Starbucks, and Target was even worse. On the roads they were all zipping around purposefully with kids. I felt like the only girl at the ball in jeans.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not looking at these women wistfully and longing for their beautiful babies and their lovely lives. I know that for me, being a 'mommy' wouldn't be Tuesday morning play dates at Starbucks with by best friend "Whitney" and her baby "Jonah" for me mommyhood would likely be a frantic flip flop between loving my adorable baby and dropping him or her at day-care-palooza so I could get to work. I would be covered in baby pooh and filled with enormous guilt that I was not only leaving him/her for hours at a time to work, but enjoying my work. I see my friends pull it off, and they do it with grace. I respect them, respect their parenting skills and am amazed that the are wearing matching socks. I just don't see HOW they do it.
Anyway, my point is... oh my, I have no point (and I guess if you're still reading me after all these years you know I often don't have a point.) I guess I was just shocked by the amount of mommies and I wonder why I didn't notice them when I was unemployed and hanging out at Starbucks in 2001.
2 comments:
because you didn't live in Issaquah!
Silly! Becaue in 2001 your head was in a different place!
"frantic flip flop between loving my adorable baby and dropping him or her at day-care-palooza so I could get to work. I would be covered in baby pooh and filled with enormous guilt that I was not only leaving him/her for hours at a time to work, but enjoying my work." This cracked me up -- you nailed it!
Incidentally, I wasn't the most maternal before I had my daughter... it was very difficult to imagie myself with a wee-one. In fact, it was hard for others to imagine me with a kid either. Seems that after having her a different part of me emerged; it was kinda wild.
Enjoy your new work freedom. Sounds kina nice, for a change.
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